Roger sent me this video last year and I found it again in my archive yesterday. It's worth another look if you love cats.

Roge's comment: "But I get chicken for lunch right? ok, deal. "

Cats are so amazing in their ability to hold their role in the family. Our cat, Mozzi now gets up on Monsieur's lap for 10 minutes at a time, even though Mozzi is not really a lap cat, more of a scrapper. He will come and sit next to me, but he seems to know who buys him the really delicious cat food, and that would be Monsieur, le gourmand.

But Mozzi, the cat who came to stay, is a really wonderful beast. He never puts a foot wrong in the house and is so discreet that we don't know where his official litter box is outdoors. He just seems to intuit the rules around here and can manage on his own outside, in rain or snow. We so enjoy his company.

We cover the white couch and the foot of the bed with a cover we call the "kitty towel" so as his dust bath will not come off on the furniture.

As soon as I put down this tablecloth, his response was, "oooh great , another kitty towel and up high too. I am sure this is allowed..... Good night."

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Many French women pay careful attention to their nails and have regular manicures and pedicures applied in a salon. You know of the French manicure, pearly nails with white painted tips? As the name implies, this is a popular choice in France when nails are varnished. Today's women who will color their nails tan, blue or black with a silver flash on the tip, will still go back to red: crimson, deep red, scarlet . Its classic, timeless. This is Laurie who is still in high school but already adept at her chosen "metier" which she is allowed to practice, skipping classes several times a week to work at the Mary Cohr "Institut de Beaute" in Nice. She is learning all of the beauty treatments from waxes to facials, but I think her specialty is nails.

I think that for women, varnishing ones nails is still a symbol of elegance, freedom, femininity.... the aesthetics of being female in a world where you can now choose how you want to represent yourself at any age. Where do we first find red polish? It's older than you might think. According to Wikipedia: "Egyptians used nail color to signify social order, with shades of red at the top. Queen Nefertiti, the wife of the king Akhenaton, colored her fingernails and toenails ruby red; Cleopatra favored crimson. Women of lower rank who colored their nails were permitted only pale colors.The Chinese used a colored lacquer, made from gum arabic, egg whites, gelatin and beeswax. They used mashed rose, orchid and impatiens petals combined with alum. This mixture applied to nails for a few hours, leaves a color ranging from pink to red. In the Chou Dynasty of 600 BC, Chinese royalty used gold and silver to enhance their nails. A 15th century Ming manuscript cites red and black as the colors chosen by royalty for centuries previous.The Incas decorated their fingernails with pictures of eagles. It is unclear how the practice of coloring nails progressed following these beginnings. Portraits from the 17th and 18th centuries include shiny nails.

By the turn of the 19th century, nails were tinted with scented red oils, and polished or buffed with a chamois cloth, rather than simply painted.English and US 19th century cookbooks had directions for making nail paints. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, women pursued a polished, rather than painted, look by massaging tinted powders and creams into their nails, then buffing them shiny. One such polishing product sold around this time was Graf's Hyglo nail polish paste. Some women during this period painted their nails with clear, glossy varnish applied with a camel-hair brush. When automobile paint was created around 1920, it inspired the introduction of colored nail enamels. "

Despite my love of short red nails on the younger set, I most often leave my nails short and natural or with clear polish. A day of inking plaques in my engraving class is enough to discourage any serious manicure. But this week , as I am not doing a messy art project , I have painted my nails and my toe-nails ...bright red . No macabre browns or maroon enamels for me....it's scarlet or nothing....

Friday, January 25, 2013

Strong morning sunlight
and a single spider’s thread
stands between me
and there, a world of dew-drops,
silent winter frost. I look up
to see a chaffinch land
in a flash of white wing feathers,
slate blue capped and rosy breasted
flitting along the hazel bush
and ice-coated grass. The sky
slightly deepens into corals, blues
and I tiptoe back inside the house
to write these words, to rest
inside this stillness, delay the day
that’s waiting for another chance.

I found this expressive poem by a young author, Louise Hastings. I am posting it in celebration of the chaffinches we have spotted in our plum tree. Monsieur has lovingly strung suet balls in the tree, risking life and certainly limb while hanging off the balustrade to do so.

The Chaffinch is such a common bird in Britain but not down here in Nice. We thought at first he was our friendly "rouge gorge" (red throat), the European "robin".... but you see the coloration of the wings, the crest and just look at that fat beak. (above photo). Not the same guy.

Rouge Gorge dans la Neige photo by forum.hardware.fr

So good to see the Chaffinch. And so good to hear the young poets. Brava, Louise Hastings for your inspiration and the beautiful photo that you found to illustrate your work.

It's a strong stimulant to see my blogger graph chart at zero, meaning no one has logged on recently. Let me try to fix that.

That's me emerging for a spot of sun, today.

My excuse is that I have been transitioning into a mole or "taupe" as they call them here: a Talpa Europaea. They bury themselves underground and have moments of frenetic activity and moments of hibernation.

I managed to come out of my burrow and take a few pics of our snow day a week ago. The fine mist of flakes wasn't all melted by the next day so that was probably some sort of a record in Nice. What else? A few moments of mole-like activity included searching online for my stovetop and ceiling fan to finish my dormant kitchen project. I finally found the perfect "hotte" and called the electrician to install it. And adorable "Monsieur, le professeur" got ambitious and practically installed the whole thing himself before the fellow got here. So easy to motivate a husband when the workman is on his way. But really it was a two man project just to get the screws in. Other online searches which qualify as frenetic activity have taken me into the deep realms of spinners (often sheep farmers), yarn dyers, yarn suppliers and knitting blogs. And what a world that is, full of like-afflicted people who can't pass up beautiful craftsmanship, hands-on projects and scrumptious colors. I now see why Ravelry.com ( the online knitting and crocheting community) has a whole category called "stashes" where folks just buy up yarn with no particular project in mind and post pictures of it as if to brag about their addiction. Whoa, I already have some beautiful cotton yarn in my stash that I got in Oregon last visit. This could happen to anybody.

How's my mattress stitch , Annie?

That's my new needle holder that I bought on Etsy

As to knitting, (which is a skill mostly acquired with You tube videos), I am two thirds finished with a "boxy pullover" by Norah Gaughan, my second sweater project. You will be surprised that I have chosen a subdued color. Alas, with youth sharply on the decline, I fear my favorite colors are wearing on me "like mutton dressed as lamb" not to put "too fine a spin on it". This muted maroon 100 % wool merino by Anny Blatt, is practically a neutral which I can wear with silk scarves that I have from a former, big city life in S.F. I know these are a bit "old lady" now but it's all in the way you wear them. Too pretty a knot is "passé". But I digress.

I am having another mole day so I'll go eat my earthworms now. Have a happy mole day yourself.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Well in case you haven't noticed I have taken a longish time out. I've been having some fun out there with folks, going to festivities, music, and parties. This is my time off from work and I really get lazy around the house too: reading, watching movies, playing my guitar, playing scrabble online and knitting.

Yes, I have been learning how to knit. I started learning to knit with videos online because I go crazy waiting for my clients to show up for the studio and I'm just sitting there listening for the gate.

You can actually go pretty far with knitting videos until you "mess up". Also, I am the kind of person who has to DO IT, get it in my bones and muscles, before I actually understand it. So videos only take me so far, then I need a person.

Luckily I have found a new friend, Annie, a knitting expert, who has kindly pulled me into and out of some tricky maneuvers in knitting. Now she is determined to move to London so I will be without a great pal and knitting buddy. Boo hoo .

So what have I done so far ....

Well, my first project was actually a little gilet sweater that I started four years ago but gave up when the woman in the shop got exasperated with me asking for help. She never had many customers so I didn't see what the problem was if she showed me something from time to time. You see, all of the terminology is in French, so most of my videos didn't help with the pattern that she sold me.

One day I brought this woman a bottle of champagne for her assistance. She put it under the counter without a word and got me through the problem for that day. The next time I came into the shop she grumbled again and I said to myself , hmmm. This is not my idea of a good time. I put the project away for three years until I met Annie and she showed me how to finish it.

My next project was a sleeveless tank which I finished at the end of summer. It was made out of bamboo fiber and was pretty easy until I got to the dreaded "kitchner stitch" . Luckily Annie said that learning that was not necessary for joining the tops so I just seamed them in the normal way.

My next pieces were a series of beanies which are easy to do and I learned online to use circular needles for them. I gave out some of those to friends and relatives until I got tired of doing them. Sorry if you didn't get one, maybe next year.

Now I am doing a second scarf out of bamboo and gossamer. I didn't want it to be itchy so there is very little wool in the gossamer. That is the photo above. My sister says she is indeed wearing the first one.

When Annie leaves, I am not going to attempt anything fancy until I find a knitting club or new mentor. I see on Ravelry, that there are three knitting groups in Nice. I will add this to the queue of all the things I would love to do this year.

I hope you feel that you are off to a good start for 2013. Hmmm, it was not the end of the world after all. ... I guess there is still time to learn something new.

About Me

Little stories from a California "girl"( Woodland Hills, Carmel, San FRancisco) spending time in France. This is my chance to weigh in and muse about life abroad and offer what I've discovered.
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